M E I 
67 
M E L 
gular, nearly equilateral, fielhy, indexed and clofed, in a 
double row, concealing the organs of impregnation. 
Stamina: filaments none ; anthers numerous, oblong, 
club-lhaped, affixed to a llightiy-convex receptacle. Pif- 
tillum : germens ten, oblong, prefled together by the fur¬ 
rounding anthers ; ftyles none ; ftigmas forming a circle, 
very fhort. Pericarpium : berries ten, ovate-oblong, ra¬ 
ther cylindrical, rough, of one cell, with many feeds. 
Seeds : comprefled, imbedded in pulp.— Ejjential Character. 
Calyx of three leaves ; petals fix, triangular, equilateral, 
doled 5 berries numerous, oblong, many-feeded. There 
are but two lpecies. 
1. Melodorum fruticofum, the cay bo gie of the Co- 
chinchinefe : leaves lanceolate, frnooth; Item fhrubby. 
Stem four feet high, erect, with fpreading branches ; leaves 
alternate, lanceolate, entire, fmooth, fragrant; flowers 
fcattered, folitary, yellowifh-brown ; berries of the fame 
colour, an inch and a half long, with many feeds, and a 
very fmall quantity of highly-delicious pulp. A decoc¬ 
tion of the leaves is ufed for removing obltrudlions. Na¬ 
tive of bufhy places in Cochinchina. 
2. Melodorum arboreum, the cay nliaoc of the fame 
people : leaves oblong, downy ; Item arboreous. A large 
tree, with afcending branches; flowers whitifn-green, 
flefhy, downy, on very fhort fcalks ; berries numerous 
from each flower, not eatable. The timber is ufed for 
building. 1 Native of woods in Cochinchina. 
Thefe plants appear, by the above defcriptions, to be 
very nearly allied to the genus Uvaria. Willdenow has 
omitted them. Loureiro Cochinch. 351. 
MELODRAMA, J\ [Latin.] A drama written for 
mufic. 
MELODU'NUM, in ancient geography, a town of the 
Cenones, in Gallia Celtica, above Lutetia ; now Melun, 
in France, on the Seine. 
MEL ODY, f. [Greek.] Mufic ; fweetnefs of found.— 
Th'e prophet David, having Angular knowledge not in 
poetry alone but in mufic alfo, judging them both to be 
things moft neceflary for the houfe of God, left behind 
him a number of divinely-indited poems, and was farther 
the author of adding unto poetry melody in public prayer; 
melody both vocal and inftrumental, for the railing up of 
men’s hearts, and the fweetening of their affections to¬ 
wards God. Hooker. 
Lend me your longs, ye nightingales j Oh pour 
The mazy-running foul of melody 
Into my varied verfe! ' Thomfon’s Spring. 
Dr. Pepufch (Treatife on Harmony) gives a very lhort, 
but intelligible, definition of melody; which, he fays, 
“ is the progreflion of found proceeding from one note to 
another fucceffively in a Angle part.” Roufleau is elo¬ 
quent on the fubjedt. Melody he deflnes, “ the fucceflion 
of founds according to the laws of rhythm and modula¬ 
tion, fo as to form mufleal phrafes agreeable to the ear. 
Vocal melody is called chant by the French ; inftrumented 
is called Jymphonic.'" The Italians called melody cantilena; 
by the * Englifh it is termed air, tune, principal or treble 
part. 
A feries of founds only becomes melody by being in 
fome fpecific time, or meafure, that is, by being arranged 
in regular proportions of time, called bars; which, how¬ 
ever divided and fubdivided into notes of different value, 
mull be performed ifochronally, that is, in equal time; and 
thefe bars have their laws likewife, and are governed by 
accents. Though melody is fo neceflary in the treble part 
of a compofition, it is not neceflary in the bale, at leafl of 
the fame kind. A polyphonic compofition is admired by 
mailers when all the parts Jing, that is, when each part 
has a feries of notes that may be called melody ; but, un- 
lefs in fugues and imitations, it is not neceflary that the 
inferior part fhould move in the fame kind of notes as 
the principal. For, as only thirds and flxths can move 
together in a regular afeent or defeent in the fame kind 
,of notes diatonically, they foon tire, and manifeft a want 
of refources in the compofer. And, though melody is 
admired and expedled in the leveral parts, it is bell when 
of a different charadter from the principal part. 
Roufleau is a champion for melody, and Laborde for 
harmony; but melody and harmony have each dillindt 
and peculiar beauties.. Melody fhould be 'poliflied, and 
harmony purified ; but it was one of the paradoxes of the 
ingenious Roufleau, “ that harmony was an imperfection, 
a Gothic and barbarous invention ; only wanted by the 
grofs and obtule organs of northern regions.” See the 
article Music. 
MELO'E, a fmall ifland in the Baltic: fourteen miles 
eaft-north-eall of Cape Lindefnefs. 
MELO'E, f. in entomology, the Blossom-eater ; a 
genus of coleopterous inledts. Generic characters—An¬ 
tennae moniliform, with 13 joints like the beads of a neck¬ 
lace, thefecond joint fmall, the laftovate; thorax rounded ; 
head infledled, gibbous ; wing-cafes foft, flexile; anterior 
and middle feet five-jointed, hind feet four jointed. 
In the firft edition of the Syltema Naturae, tRere was 
only one fpecies of this genus taken notice of; in the 
later improvements of that celebrated work, there are 
thirty-fix kinds of thefe animals enumerated. The in¬ 
fers of this genus are either winged or apterous ; in the 
former, the elytra are fhort, extending about half the length 
of the abdomen ; in the latter, thefe parts reach the whole 
length of the body, and conceal under them two flender 
wings. A new arrangement of this genus has been pro- 
pofed by Mr. (now Dr.) Leach, in the xith volume of the 
Linn. Tranf. 1815. This gentleman has very accurately 
deferibed all the Bfitifh and feveral exotic fpecies ; but he 
excludes all winged infedts from this genus, fo that we can 
avail ourfelves of his valuable paper in our Aril divifion 
only. We fhall now have forty-two fpecies to deferibe. 
I. Wings none ; elytra, or fliells, abbreviated. 
1. Meloe profearabaeus, the oil-beetle: colour dark- 
violet, elpecially on the antennas and limbs. The wing- 
fheaths are very fhort, in the female inledt efpecially, 
Idarcely covering more than a third of the body, and are 
of an oval fliape ; but this infedt has no wings. This 
fpecies is frequent in the advanced flate of fpring in fields 
and paflures, creeping flowly, the body appearing fo 
fwollen or diftended with eggs as to caufe the infedt to 
move with difficulty. On being handled, it fuddenly ex- 
fudes from the joints of its legs, as well as from fome 
parts of the body, feveral fmall drops of a clear deep-yellow 
oil or fluid, of a very peculiar and penetrating fmell; 
whence the name. This oil or fluid has been highly ce¬ 
lebrated for its fuppofed efficacy in rheumatic pains, &c. 
when ufed as an embrocation on the parts affected ; for 
this purpofe alfo the oil expreffed from the whole infedt 
has been ufed with equal fuccefs. This infedt is near an 
inch and a half in length ; and is corredtiy reprefented on 
the annexed Plate, at fig. 1. 
The female of this fpecies depofits her eggs, which are 
very fmall, and of an orange colour, in a large heap ormafs 
beneath (the furfaceof the ground ; each egg, when viewed 
by the microfcope, appears of a cylindrical lhape, with 
rounded ends ; from thefe are hatched the larvae, which, 
at their Aril appearance, Icarcely meafure a line in length, 
and are of an ochre-yellow, with black eyes ; they are fur- 
nilhed with lhort antennre, fix legs of moderate length, 
and a long, jointed, tapering, body, terminated by two 
forked filaments or procefles. Thefe larva.- are found to 
live by attaching themlelves to other infedts ahd abforb- 
ing their juices. They are fometimes leen Itrongly faf- 
tened to common flies, Sec. a pradtice fo extraordinary as to 
have caufed coniiderable doubt whether they could poflibly 
have been the real larvae of the M. profearabaeus. The ac¬ 
curate obfervations of Degeer however have completely 
proved that they immediately fallen themlelves to any 
infedt, whether living or dead, that is placed near them. It 
is therefore probable that in their natural fubterraneous 
Hate they attach themlelves in a fimilar manner to the 
1 larvts 
